Lily Allen “Hard Out Here”

It’s been five long years since Lily walked away from the music biz. I am so glad to hear her return. if there’s a follow up album to “It’s Not Me, It’s You” coming next year, 2014 just started looking brighter.

But the video is…troublesome. I get this is making fun of Miley and the cultural appropriation and so forth. Certainly the song is making fun of the way women in pop are treated. But it’s still a white girl dancing with a bunch of black girls twerking. Yes, it’s supposed to be ironic. But I’m not sure it reads.

Still, I just drove to work singing “It’s hard out here for a bitch.” Video aside, the song is intelligently written and solid. And Lily’s sardonic voice has been sorely missed.

ETA: Allen put out a statement saying this is “about feminism” and “not about race.” Oh dear. If she can’t see the racist connotations inherent in this piece, that’s a real shame. Furthermore, trying to ignore race in favor of feminism is a running problem all white feminists of privilege have. I hate to see her go down that road.

Okay…..first question: how come Lily Allen gets to be the only woman in this video who is fully dressed? Cuz when she bends over with the other dancers, she’s wearing tights, so unlike the other women, there’s no danger that she’s going to give the video an NC-17 rating by exposing any private orifices. Plus the fact that she gets to stand in the usual male spot – smacking half naked women on the ass while they bend over for her – has really unfortunate connotations about their relative power, given she is white and most of the dancers are black. I can see what she was aiming for, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark.